641 Ladybirds

First  viewed :  14  October  1983

Now  things  get  a  bit  more  fractured  as  we  enter  my  university  days. I  didn't  have  a  portable  TV  for  my  room . There  was  a  TV  lounge  in  my  hall  of  residence  but  it  was  shared   with  80+  other  people  and  the  house  entertainments  committee  were  often  renting  videos as  well. Therefore  , after  missing  the  final  part  of  The  Old  Men  At  The  Zoo  and  my  continued  anxiety  over  The  Prisoner , I   consciously  avoided  starting  serials   so  there'll  be  a  bias  towards  one  off   programmes   as  we  cover  the  next  three  years. It's  also  the  case  that  these  programmes  don't  seem  quite  as  distant  now.

Ladybirds  was  a  series  of  hour-long documentaries  on  Channel  4, each  featuring  a  female  singer. The  only  one  I  can  definitely  recall  watching  about  was  about  Jane  Birkin. Birkin  remains  a  one  hit  wonder  in  the UK  with   Je t'aime ...moi  non  plus   but  that's  largely  through  her  own  choice  as  she  records  and  acts  mainly  in  French  having  settled  there  since  her  relationship  with  Serge  Gainsbourg  began  in  1968. By  the  time  of  the  documentary  she  was  37  and  had  split  up  with  him  although  they  were  still  working  together  musically. I  can't  remember  too  much  of  the  programme   except  that  it  concluded  with  her  saying  rather  sweetly  that  she  hoped  people  in  Britain  still  remembered  her.